Features

Hotels

Tours

Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée

The Palais de la Méditerranée is a landmark hotel in France’s fifth city, commanding a prominent position on the Promenade des Anglais. Behind its 1920s façade sits a splendidly seamless five-star hotel that caters for international businessmen and wealthy holidaymakers alike.

Check-in

Check-out

Occupancy

Ages of children

Airport

Location

Slap bang on the most recognisable French Riviera sight, the Promenade des Anglais. The Palais lords it over this five-star hotel strip with Nice’s endless beach right on the doorstep.

Style & character

8/10

The Palais de la Méditerranée started life in the roaring 1920s as a casino and 1,000-room theatre where the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier would play. Even the iconic hotel façade is a listed monument and could not be changed for the hotel’s grand reopening in 2004.

That said, the style is thoroughly 21st-century, with taupe carpets and mauve cushions aplenty. The hotel hits the tricky balance of catering for wealthy businesspersons and holidaying families with friendly aplomb. Affluent French, Americans and Brits predominate, with an increasing sector of hip Chinese couples.

Service & facilities

8/10

The service firmly belongs to the five-star Hyatt brand, seamless and attentive without being overbearing. The facilities list includes indoor and outdoor pools, cardio machines, business centres and a spa. Guests can lounge in luxury in the private beach club opposite (for €27/£23 apiece). New for 2017 is a winter garden that will partially enclose the third floor open terrace, where sun-kissed breakfasts and evening cocktails can be taken overlooking the sea.

Bar

Fitness centre

Golf course

Laundry

Pool

Restaurant

Room service

Sauna

Steam room/hammam

Wi-Fi

Rooms

7/10

The tea and coffee making facilities, domestic BBC channels and fluffy robes represent Hyatt’s top tier of hotel. But standard rooms won’t set pulses raising. The smallest Queen rooms overlook the courtyard, while King rooms are a bit larger and boast private terraces.

The Deluxe categories are a class above, with Nespresso machines and glimpsing sea views. If you can afford it, the huge Penthouse Suite – the preserve of royalty and celebrity – is a fully furnished apartment with the finest private terrace in Nice.

Food & drink

8/10

Oh the breakfast! A fully serviced, cooked-to-order, table-topping buffet of every imaginable French flavour, from salmon fumé to Niçoise olives. Palais de la Méditerranée staff are only too happy to porter your freshly squeezed orange or mushroom omelette to your table.

Fine dining can be found at third floor Le 3e. Dishes like organic Black Angus beef carpaccio (€24/£20) and seared red mullet fillets (€29/£25) are prepared by chef Cyril Cheype who previously headed up the Hyatt Regency at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The hotel’s Clés d'Or concierge will point you in the direction of more regional, rarefied flavours.

Value for money

8/10

Rates for a Queen room start from €140 in low season, and from €399 in high. Breakfast included. Free Wi-Fi.

Access for guests with disabilities?

Almost every corner of the hotel is accessible for all, except the sea view breakfast terrace which staff can lift wheelchairs up onto. There are also disabled access rooms with bathrooms, plus reduced mobility access to the pool.

Family-friendly?

Toys, restaurant colouring books, interconnecting rooms, Petit Prince bath products and dozens of friendly faces make the Palais de la Méditerranée great for children, although those over 13 are considered adults.